Chapter I: On the Voyage of Life (2)

Again I see the mountains of Ofen, this time from the Pesth
side, from below. From the plains I have just left, the dim
outlines of blue Carpathian ridges, distant some twelve or
fifteen miles, are in some places, when the air is very clear,
barely distinguishable. To the south and east the plain was
fathomless; in the first direction it stretches far away into
Turkey, in the second towards Siebenbürgen. The heat to-day
was again scorching, and has peeled all the skin from my face.
A heat-storm is now raging, driving so fiercely over the
steppes that the houses tremble. I swam in the Danube, saw the
magnificent suspension bridge from beneath, paid visits, heard
very good gypsy music on the parade, and shall soon go to bed.
The parts on the edge of the Pusta, where it is beginning to
be cultivated, remind me of Pomerania, in the neighborhoods of
Rommelow, Romahn, and Coseger. The gypsies have grayish-black
complexions. Their costume is fabulous; the children quite
naked, except a string of glass pearls about their necks.
Two women had handsome, regular features, and were cleaner
and more ornamented than the men. When the Hungarians want
a dance over again, they shout in a surprised tone, “_Hody
wol? Hody?_” (“What was it? What?”), and look at each other
interrogatively, as if they had not understood, although they
know the music by heart. It is, indeed, a singular people, but
pleases me very well. It was just as well I had the escort of
Uhlans. At about the same time I left Ketskemet for the south,
sixty-three wagons went off in a northerly direction towards
Körös. Two hours later they were stopped and plundered. A
colonel, who was by accident driving before this wagon-train,
had some shots sent after him, as he would not halt. One
horse was shot through the neck, but not enough to bring it
down, and as he returned the fire, with his two servants,
flying at full gallop, they preferred to be satisfied with
the other travellers. They did no other harm to any one, and
only plundered some individuals, or rather ransomed them, for
they do not take all a person has, but only in proportion to
property, and according to their own needs; for instance, they
will quietly receive forty florins out of a thousand, without
touching the remainder. Thieves with whom one can talk!

* * * * *

Vienna, the 30th.

Here I am again at the “Roman Emperor.” While you were looking
from the Castle of Coblenz on the Rhine in attendance on our
King and Lord, I was looking from the Castle of Ofen upon the
Danube, and had an after-dinner conversation with the young
Emperor upon the Prussian military system; and, oddly enough,
on the same afternoon on which you visited Ehrenbreitstein
and Stolzenfels, I took a drive through the Citadel above the
palace, and into the forest district of Ofen. The view from
the first is admirable. It reminds one of Prague, only there
is more background and distance, therefore rather resembles
Ehrenbreitstein, and the Danube is grander than the Moldau. I
reached here last night, per the Pesth train, about half-past
six.

Bismarck, as usual, was invited to the royal hunting-party in the autumn, as we perceive by the following letter to his wife:—

Blankenburg, 1st Nov., 1852.

A very unusual early rising, caused by the circumstance that my
room is a passage for some Court servants still asleep, gives
me time for these lines. Our Queen is also here, and is just
being awakened by soft music of horns. I have not had such
good sport in Letzlingen this time as three years ago; it was
on Friday. Only three stags, _voilà tout_; one of them I hope
will reach you. Eat the wild boar devoutly, and pickle some of
it. His Majesty shot it with his own gracious hand. Otherwise,
things went off very well; and, as I found N. N. there, I need
not go to Berlin, and hope to reach you by the evening after
to-morrow, of which please inform ——, as well as that his
appointment for Berlin at our Court may be regarded as certain.

B.

The band is still playing very well from the Freischütz,—“_Ob
auch die Wolke sie verhülle_” (If the cloud still doth surround
her); very apt in this doubtful weather.

In the following year he received many visits from the Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg, for whom he was engaged at the time, at the instance of the King’s Government, in obtaining a pecuniary settlement of the Duke’s claims with Denmark. Bismarck was able, with great difficulty, to extract from very unwilling Denmark a handsome compensation. At this the Duke was so rejoiced, that he devoted himself and followers, with the entire gratitude of the House of Augustenburg, to the policy of Bismarck, as is well known.

In the summer of 1853 Bismarck first visited Ostend and Holland, then Westphalia and Nordeney. He then had a mission to Hanover, of which he rendered an account at Potsdam. In the autumn he spent a considerable time with his family in Switzerland, at Villeneuve, on the Lake of Geneva, and thence visited Upper Italy, especially Aosta and Genoa. In October he was summoned to Potsdam by His Majesty the King; was present at the hunting-parties of Letzlingen, and then returned for the winter to Frankfurt; some time, however, he spent in Berlin.

During the summer trip, which Bismarck made alone, he wrote the following letters to his wife:—

Ostend, 19th August, 1853.

Up to the present time, besides the one of to day, I have taken
three baths, with which I have been well pleased; there is a
strong sea and soft bottom. Most people bathe close under the
pier forming the parade, ladies and gentlemen all together; the
first in very unbecoming long gowns of dark woollen, the last
in a tricot, being jacket and trowsers in one piece, so that
the arms above and the legs beneath are almost free. Only the
consciousness of possessing a perfectly well-proportioned form
can allow one of us to produce himself in ladies’ society thus.

* * * * *

Brussels, 21st August, 1853.

I have left Ostend with sorrow, and really wish myself back
again: I found an old sweetheart of mine there, and as
unchanged and charming as on our first acquaintance. I really
feel the sorrow of separation deeply at this moment, and look
forward impatiently to the instant when I shall cast myself
on her heaving bosom at Nordeney. I can hardly understand why
people can not always live by the sea, and why I have been
cajoled into passing two days in this parallelogrammatic stone
heap, to see bull-fights, Waterloo, and pompous processions. If
I had not to keep that most unlucky appointment with N. N., I
should stay several weeks longer in Ostend, and give N. N. up.
I shall only remain till noon to-morrow, and then start, or
early the next morning, for Antwerp, Rotterdam, and Amsterdam;
thence by steamer to Harlingen, and through Friesland to
Nordeney. I am afraid N. N. will soon disturb me there, and if
I once get to Bremen with him, I hardly know whether I ever
shall accomplish the tiresome journey to N. again, but shall
make my way by Hanover, Hamm, Kassel, and Frankfurt to the
place you inhabit. If you write to me, direct to Nordeney.

* * * * *

Amsterdam, 24th August, 1853.

In Brussels and Antwerp I have never had a quiet minute on
account of feasts and sight-seeing. I have passed a detestable
night on a camp-stool, in a crowded boat from Antwerp, starting
at one in the morning. By an angular labyrinth of arms of the
Scheldt and Maas, and the Rhine, I reached Rotterdam early,
about eleven, and about four arrived here. That is a singular
town: many streets are like Venice, some with water right up
to the walls, others like canals with a towing path, and with
narrow walks planted with limes before the houses. The latter
have fantastic gables, strange and smoky, almost ghostly—the
chimneys like men standing on their heads and stretching
out their legs. That which does not savor of Venice is the
busy life, and the massive handsome shops—one window close
to the other, and more magnificently than I remember those
of Paris or London. When I listen to the bells, and, with a
long clay pipe in my mouth, look through the forest of masts,
across the canals into the twilight towards the romantically
confused gables and chimneys, all the Dutch ghost stories of
my childhood come back to me, of Dolph Heylinger, and Rip van
Winkle, and the Flying Dutchman. To-morrow morning I go by
steamer to Harlingen on the Zuyder Zee, and to-morrow evening I
hope to be in Nordeney, the farthest point from you I propose
to touch; and then the time will not be far off when I hope
to encounter you unexpectedly on a glacier. I have nothing
from Berlin since I left Ostend, and therefore conclude that
the storms are all laid, and the waters returned into the old
bed—the pleasantest event that could happen for us. I am very
glad I have seen Holland; from Rotterdam to this place there is
one continual verdant and level meadow, upon which there are
many bushes, much grazing cattle, and some old cities cut out
of picture-books; no arable land anywhere.

* * * * *

Norderney, 27th Aug., 1853.

Last evening I arrived here on a stout Dutch sloop, amidst
thunder, lightning, and rain—have, after an abstinence of
a week, taken another glorious sea-bath, and sitting in a
fishing hut with a feeling of great loneliness and longing for
you—partly heightened by the clamor of mine host’s children,
partly by the piping scream of the storm against the roof and
flagstaff. It is really tiresome here, and that suits me, as I
have a long piece of work to finish. I wrote to you last from
Amsterdam, previously from Brussels. Since then I have seen
a charming little country—West Friesland; quite flat, but so
bushy green, hedgy, every farm-house surrounded by its little
wood, that one seems to envy the peaceful independence reigning
there. —— will probably ascribe this satisfaction to the
circumstance that, as at Linz and Gmunden, all the girls are
pictures of beauty, only taller and more slender, fair, colors
like milk and roses, and a very becoming helmet-like golden
head-dress.

In the spring of 1854 we find Bismarck at Potsdam, in the summer at Munich and Stuttgart. On the 28th of June he wrote to his sister from Frankfurt, thus:

I should have liked under all circumstances to have brought
you my good wishes in person, particularly as I know my roving
wife is with you. But unfortunately we seem too important to
ourselves here, to deprive confused Europe of the light of our
wisdom. Whoever speaks of holidays now is regarded as a traitor
to the world-important problem of the Germanic Confederation. I
long deeply for the country, the forest and laziness, with the
_obligato_ addition of affectionate wives and well-conducted
clean children. If I hear one of these hopefuls crying in
the street, my heart is filled with parental feelings and
educational maxims. How do our descendants agree, and are mine
good? I have been obliged to write these few lines at three
intervals, because N. N. and N. N. East and West disturbed me
during the time, and Z. is just announced: he won’t go for
an hour, so I say farewell. I want to go fishing with the
Englishman to-day, but it rains too much, so instead I am a
victim of visitors. Farewell, and live long. Your faithful
brother.

Bismarck then accompanied the King, who grew continually more attached to him, to the island of Rügen; by Pomerania, Berlin, and Baden he returned to Frankfurt.

During the summer of 1855 he visited the Exhibition at Paris, residing with the Prussian Ambassador, Count Hatzfeld, and was introduced to the Emperor of the French. Afterwards he went to Stuttgart and Munich, and then visited the King and Queen at Stolzenfels. The year 1856 was comparatively quiet, and he passed his summer at Stolpmünde.

Reinfeld, in Pomerania, 11th Sept., 1856.

The Diet will, I think, in November, devote its sessions to
the Holstein question with greater good-will than results.
Outwardly all the governments will appear united in this
matter. Austria will, however, secretly remain an adherent of
the Danes; its press will teem with German phrases, and Prussia
will be saddled with the error of inaction. The centre of
gravity of the affair actually does not lie at Frankfurt, but
in the question whether Denmark is secure from the assaults
of one or more of the extra German States. If she be, then
she will look upon the decision of the Diet as a sufficient
settlement.

From Courland Bismarck returned to Berlin and Potsdam, and thence went to Baden; afterwards he was at Hohendorf in East Prussia, and Reinfeld in Pomerania. These were certainly years of apprenticeship, but still more years of journey. In the following years he was frequently summoned to the Prince of Prussia in Baden-Baden; he then went to Stolpmünde, and remained in Berlin throughout October and November. During these years the following letters were written to Frau von Arnim, the two last containing some notices of the Ministry of the so-called “new era”—Bismarck speaking in a very intelligible way as to his own position.

BISMARCK TO FRAU VON ARNIM.

Reinfeld, 15th October, 1856.

It looks as if I never was to reach Kröchlendorf. Harry will no
doubt have told you how I intended to do so. I should already
have been with you, but last week my poor little Marie was
seized with some kind of chicken-pox, and so I could not well
leave Johanna until the symptoms were declared. She is still
as variegated as a trout, but decidedly better. I wanted to
set off to-day for Passow direct, but yesterday had a letter
from ——, by which he lets me know that he wants to see me by
the 18th at ——. As a diplomatist I can not refuse to meet
our trustiest companion, and one of the Olympian deities of
our Frankfurt Pantheon. If I receive no letter from Berlin
in between, I hope to rest in your sororal arms by the 19th.
Should I be able to get away from —— on the evening of the
18th, I shall leave by the early train from Stettin. If I
can not do this, I still hope to reach Stettin by the twelve
o’clock train, if the postillions can be got to a trot. But do
not wait dinner for me.

* * * * *

THE SAME TO THE SAME.

Frankfurt, 26th Nov., 1856.

Bernhard will have told you by what unexpected chain of
infantine disease and royal mandates I have been deranged in
my chronological calculations, and how ——, who has claims
upon my ideas of the service, also abridged my lecture, so
that it happened, a few hours before we were about to set out
for Kröchlendorf, all together, that I had to announce to the
male as well as the female Bernhard that I could only escort
them as far as Passow. At that frontier of the Uckermark I
met ——, and in Angermünde we were joined by ——, so that I was
gradually prepared, by ministerial conferences and three hours
of smokelessness, for my Berlin strait-waistcoat. It seemed as
if I was never to get to Kröchlendorf. I had plenty of time and
desire to do so, after the terminations of the Berlin marriage
festivities, and only after a conference with —— did I decide
first to go to Reinfeld, and on my return, to you, in order to
stop a week with him there; because he only got his holiday in
October, and our arrangement was that I should come hither
with him about the 15th, and return to Berlin about the 22d.
On the 11th my child was taken ill, at first severely; then
I had to attend to official parade. Then I was summoned to
his Majesty at Berlin, where, on the 25th of October, I found
myself early enough. And now I am here, have only seen the sun
twice in the last month, and every day I say to myself that it
is impossible in November to live without wife and children.
From sheer ennui I give dinner parties. In the evening one
rout succeeds another, and I shall soon begin to gamble if
Johanna and the children do not occupy this vacuum. She thought
of starting from Reinfeld on Saturday the 22d, but on the
20th wrote me a plaintive letter about cold and snow, which
I received on the 23d. Since then I have no idea whether she
is on the other side of the Gollenberg or this side of the
Randow. I begged her generally to inform you of her confinement
in Berlin beforehand, and to let you know from Cöslin by
telegraph when she would actually arrive there. The last time
I lived in —— very fairly, but it appeared to me this youthful
undertaking must either not have taken place, or already been
“over.” If Johanna should by accident be in Berlin, greet her
from me. Perhaps I shall get there by Saturday. I am summoned
to the Upper Chamber, but the contents do not assure me whether
His Majesty wishes me to be there myself personally, or only
desires to see his most humble servant en bloc. In the latter
case, I should not consider myself called to leave my important
business, and the stove in the red study, to sit up to the
neck in snow at Halle, and next heighten the effect of the
White Saloon by a flying costume under the rubric of “People,
nobility, detectives, and priests.” I expect an answer from
Berlin about this, as to whether I am wanted as an ornament or
a coadjutor. In the latter case I should reach Berlin early on
Saturday. I should be very glad on that occasion to see you,
as some recompense for Kröchlendorf; otherwise, I am glad to
remain away from Berlin, and receive my own folks here.

* * * * *

TO FRAU VON ARNIM.

Frankfurt (without date.)

While I was forced to hear an almost incredibly long speech by
a highly esteemed colleague on the anarchical condition of
things in Upper Lippe, I thought how I could use the time,
and the most prominent want of my heart seemed to be a desire
to pour forth fraternal feelings. A very highly respectable
but slightly amusing company surrounds me, at a green-covered
circular table, some twenty feet in diameter, in the ground
floor of the Prince of Tour and Taxis’s palace, with a view of
the garden. The average appearance of these folks is somewhat
that of N. N. and Z. in Berlin—they have quite a Federal Diet
cut!

I go out shooting pretty regularly, when a single individual
shoots some six to fifteen hares and a few pheasants—very
seldom a roe or a fox—and a head of red deer is sometimes seen
in the far distance. Time for this I have been able to spare
from being far more lazy, as my industry in Berlin led to no
results.

N. N. is by no means as charming as he used to be; he listens
to all kinds of lying stories, and allows himself to be
persuaded that I am anxious for his heritage, although I am
glad to be left where I am. I am getting accustomed, in the
consciousness of yawning innocence, to submit to all symptoms
of coldness, and permit a spirit of entire indolence to possess
me, after having, I flatter myself, gradually brought the Diet
to a knowledge of its piercing nihilism. The well-known song
of Heine, “_O Bund, du Hund, du bist nicht gesund_” (O Diet,
you dog, you are not well), will soon be unanimously adopted by
resolution as the national anthem of the Germans.

Nobody troubles themselves about the East here. The Russians
or the Turks may put what they like in the newspapers; nobody
believes either in land or sea fights, and doubts the existence
of Sinope, Kalafat, and Schefketel.

Darmstadt has at last stopped reading—and I fall, full of
emotion, into your arms, and wish you a pleasant feast. Many
greetings to Oscar. Your faithful brother,

B.

* * * * *

TO THE SAME.

From Paris, Hotel de Douvres, April, 1857.

I have five stoves, and am freezing—five clocks, and never know
how late it is—eleven great looking-glasses, and my necktie is
always awry. I shall probably have to remain here until Tuesday
evening, although I am anxious to be at home. Since November
I have not emerged from this Bohemianism—since November, and
I have not had a sensation of regular and lasting domesticity
since you went last summer with Johanna to Schwalbach. Now
they want to summon me to Berlin about the salt tax; if I had
the time, I could not take part in this debate. I can not,
according to my conviction, vote for the Government; but, if I
vote for the Opposition, it is hardly proper to ask for leave
of absence on such an account; and, considering the rumors as
to my eventual entry into the Ministry, of which Johanna, on
account of your statements, writes despairingly, one could
think I had some ideas of joining in the swindle. Hearty
greetings to Oscar.

B.

In the spring of 1857 we again find Bismarck in Paris, and it was then that he had his first special political conference with the Emperor Napoleon. In the summer he made a journey to the North—went to Denmark and Sweden, ending by field-sports in Courland; on his return he found his family at Stolpmünde.

While on this journey he wrote the following letter to his wife:—

Copenhagen, 6th August, 1857.

This morning at seven I safely arrived here, after a very
pleasant passage; mild air, a red moon, the chalk cliffs
lighted by tar-barrels; two storms at sea, and a little wind;
what more can one want? The night prevented my sleeping, and
when the rain drove me from the deck about two o’clock, it was
so hot and reeking of humanity below, that about three I went
on deck with cloak and cigar. I have now taken a sea-bath,
eaten some lobster, and about half-past one I must attend at
the Court—so now I will sleep a couple of hours.

* * * * *

Räsbyholm, 9th August, 1857.

You will have already received the few lines I wrote directly
I reached Copenhagen. Since then I have been occupied for two
days with museums and politics, yesterday was ferried over to
Malmö, and driven some eight miles to the north-eastward, and
am at the above-named place, in a white castle situated very
high on a peninsula surrounded by a large lake. Through the
window and the thicket of ivy, that admit of some view of the
water and hills beyond, I perceive that the sun is shining and
flies are buzzing. Behind me sits ——; he is reading and dozing;
broad Swedish is spoken under the window, and from the kitchen
I can hear a pestle grinding away like a saw. That is all I can
tell you of the present. Yesterday we stalked roebucks, one was
killed, but I did not shoot; we got thoroughly drenched; then
we took hot wine, and slept soundly for nine hours. Roebucks
are more plentiful than I have ever seen anywhere, and the
neighborhood is prettier than I thought. Magnificent beech
forests, and walnut-trees the size of a man’s body, in the
garden. We have just visited the pheasantry; after dinner we
are going on the lake, and may perhaps shoot a duck, unless
we fear to disturb the Sunday rest of this lovely solitude
by a shot; to-morrow we are to have a regular day, next day
we return to Copenhagen, and from there to N. N., and a
stag-hunt on Wednesday; Thursday by Copenhagen to Helsingborg,
some twenty miles into Sweden. We shall seek woodcocks and
moorfowl in the wilderness; we shall lodge in farm-houses; our
provisions we take with us. This will last for about a week,
and then I hardly know what I shall do; either proceed by
way of Jönkeping, at the south end of Lake Wetter, and so to
Stockholm, or by Götheborg and Lake Wener, or to Christiania,
abandoning Stockholm, or perhaps _viâ_ Memel to Courland. This
depends on a letter I expect from —— in Copenhagen.

* * * * *

Tomsjönas, 16th Aug., 1857.

I again employ the quiet of Sunday to give you some sign of
life, although I do not yet know on what day we shall find an
opportunity of reaching the post from this wilderness. For
some fifteen miles have I driven into the depths of the woods
to reach this place, and before me lie some twenty-five miles
ere we shall get to cultivated provinces. There is no town, no
village, far or near—only isolated settlers and plank-huts,
with a little barley and potatoes, strewn irregularly between
dead trees, rocks, and thickets, over a few rods of ploughed
land. Think of the wildest region near Viartlum,[42] for some
hundred of square miles, tall heather, varied by short grass
and moorland, beset with birch, juniper, pines, beech, oaks,
and alders, sometimes impassably thick and sometimes very
sparse, the whole sown with innumerable stones to the size of
houses, smelling of wild rosemary and firs; and between them
strangely formed lakes, surrounded by sand and forest—and you
will see Smaland; where I now am. Really the land of my dreams,
not to be reached by dispatches, colleagues, and N. N., but
unhappily also for you; I should like to have a hunting-box
on one of these quiet lakes, and people it for a few months
with all the dear ones I now fancy are assembled at Reinfeld.
It would be impossible to winter it out here, particularly
amidst the dirt of the rain. Yesterday we started about five,
and hunted in the burning heat, up hill and down dale, through
bog and bush, until eleven; but found nothing at all. It is
very tiring to walk through moors and impassable thickets
of juniper, over great stones and underwood. We slept in a
hay barn till two, drank a great deal of milk, and continued
the chase till sunset, killing twenty-five woodcocks and two
snipes. We then dined at the lodge—a wonderful structure of
wood—on a peninsula by the lake. My room, with its three
stools, two tables, and bedstead, presents the same uniform
tint of rough pine planks, as does the whole house and its
walls. The bed is very hard, but after all this exertion one
sleeps without rocking. From my window I see a knoll with
birch-trees, whose branches rustle in the breeze; between these
the mirror of the lake, and beyond it fir forests. Beside the
house is a tent for huntsman, driver, servants, and peasants;
then the carriage-house and a little dog of a village of some
eighteen or twenty huts, on both sides of a little street, and
from each of these a tired beater is looking out. I propose to
remain in this oasis till Wednesday or Thursday, then leave for
another expedition on the shore, and return this day week to
Copenhagen, on account of miserable politics. What next, I do
not know as yet.

_The 17th._—This morning early six wolves have been here and
have torn up a poor bullock; we found their fresh traces,
but personally we did not see them. From four in the morning
till eight in the evening we have been in motion, have shot
four woodcocks, slept for two hours on mown heather, and now,
dog-tired, to bed.

_The 19th._—It is impossible to send a letter to the post
from here, without sending a messenger twelve miles; I shall
therefore take this to the coast myself to-morrow. Yesterday,
when the dog pointed, and I was looking more at him than at
the ground I was treading on, I fell and hurt my left shin.
Yesterday we had a very tired day’s sport, long and rocky; it
produced me a woodcock; but has tamed me so completely, that
to-day I am sitting at home with bandages, so that I should
be ready to travel to-morrow and shoot the next day. I really
am astonished at myself for stopping at home alone in such
charming weather, and can scarcely refrain from the abominable
wish that the others will shoot nothing. It is a little too
late in the year, the birds are shy, or sport would be more
plentiful. We shot through a charming place yesterday; great
lakes, with islands and shores, mountain torrents, over rocks,
plains for miles without houses or plough-land; every thing
just as God created it, forest, field, heath, morass, and lake.
I shall certainly return hither some day.

Two gentlemen of the Danish Chambers are already back; it was
too hot for them, and they have gone to sleep. It is about
half-past five; the others will only arrive about eight. I
have been amusing myself all day in learning Danish from the
doctor who applied the bandages. We brought him with us from
Copenhagen, for there are no doctors here. Since a report
has been spread of the presence of a physician in the woods,
every day some twenty or thirty inhabitants of the huts come
streaming in to take his advice. On Sunday evening we gave a
very amusing dance to the inhabitants of the five square miles
of forest; the music was played and sung by turns. Then they
heard of the “wise man,” and now cripples of twenty years’
standing come and hope to be cured by him.

* * * * *

Königsberg, 12th Sept., 1857.

I found to my great joy your four letters at Polangen (which,
by-the-by, is not in Prussia but Russia), and find from them
that you and the children are well. I got on very well; the
Courlanders were all touchingly kind to me, in a way seldom
found by a foreigner. Besides several roebucks and stags, I
shot five elks, one a very fine stag, measuring roughly six
feet eight, without his colossal head. He fell like a hare, but
as he was still alive, I mercifully gave him my second barrel;
scarcely had I done so ere a second came up, still taller,
so close to me that Engel, my loader, had to jump behind a
tree to avoid being run over. I was obliged to look at him
in a friendly way, as I had no other shot. I can not get rid
of this disappointment, and must complain to you about it. I
shot at another—no doubt he will be found—but one I missed
entirely. I might, therefore, have killed three more. The
night before last we left Dondangen, and in twenty-nine hours
made forty miles without a road, through the forest and desert
to Memel, in an open carriage, over stock and stone; we were
obliged to hold on, so that we should not be thrown out. After
three hours’ sleep at Memel, we started this morning in the
steamboat for this place, whence we leave for Berlin to-night
and arrive to-morrow. “We” means Behr and myself. I can not
stop in Hohendorf; I ought to have been in Berlin to-morrow, my
furlough being up. I should, however, have been obliged to give
up my best sport at Dondangen, with the enormous stags, or, as
they call them there, _bolls_; nor should I have seen how the
axle of a great wagon broke under the enormous creature. On
Monday the Emperor arrives at Berlin, therefore I am obliged to
be there “some days” before. I hope to return from Berlin to
Hohendorf and Reinfeld; but if the King goes to Frankfurt, this
is unlikely.

* * * * *

Frankfurt, 19th December, 1857.

Your true sisterly heart has offered in so friendly a manner
to look after Christmas exigencies, that I will not apologize
if I now allow you to carry out the seductions of Gerson and
other rascals once more, and ask you _sans phrase_ to make the
following purchases for Johanna:—

1. Jewelry: she wishes to have an opal heart, like yours, and
“the mind of man his kingdom is.” I am willing to pay some two
hundred _thalers_ for it. If for that price it is possible
to obtain a pair of earrings, each consisting of one clear
brilliant, I should think it more tasteful. You have some like
it, but they are much dearer, and should you think the opal
heart preferable, I will try later to find a pair of fitting
earrings founded upon pearls.

2. One dress, at about one hundred _thalers_—not more. She
wants to see herself “very light and bright,” _à deux passes,
moirée antique_, or something of that kind: she requires ten
_rods_—about twenty ells.

3. Should you discover a valuable and pretty gilt fan, rustling
a great deal, buy it also. Ten _thalers_ are quite enough. I
can’t bear the things.

4. A large warm rug to lay over the feet in the carriage, with
designs of tigers, glass eyes in their heads; might be a fox or
a hippopotamus—any ferocious animal. I have seen one at ——’s,
of very soft wool; won’t cost ten _thalers_. If you want to
remain a charming sister, buy me all this, and send at once by
_express luggage train_; address, Hofrath ——, Prussian Embassy.

I have so much to write about Holstein, Mainz, the bridge of
Kehl, and all sorts of things in Berlin, that I have been
obliged to decline two capital days of sport, to-day and
to-morrow, after red deer. Johanna and the children are well,
and the former would send love if she knew I wrote; but do not
let her know any thing about it, my heart, and so farewell.
Greetings to Oscar. The money I will send through Fritz, the
receiver, by the new year.

* * * * *

Frankfurt o. t. M., 2d April, 1858.

I quite agree with you that our position in the Zollverein
is blundered. I go further than this, being firmly convinced
that we must give notice to the whole of the Zollverein, as
soon as the term has arrived. The reasons for this conviction
are far too stratified to be developed here, and they are too
closely connected to be named one by one. We must terminate the
treaty in view of the danger of remaining alone with Dessau
and Sondershausen. It is, however, not to be _desired_ that
this last should be the case, or that such a state of things
should long subsist; therefore we must render it agreeable—if
possible, an unavoidable necessity—to the other states of the
Zollverein, during the period yet to run, that after proper
notice has been given they should seek adherence to _our_
conditions. One portion of this system would be to allow them
to draw higher nett revenues than they could obtain by frontier
customs without Prussia. Another thing is, that they must not
be allowed to think that the continuance of a Zollverein with
Prussia is impossible in fact; this would, however, be the
case if, besides the twenty-eight governments, some fifty class
corporations, guided by particular interests, should be able
to exercise a _liberum veto_. If the Prussian Chambers begin
with this, the equality vertigo of the German governments will
not allow the rest to remain behind; they will desire to make
themselves also of importance.

In order to avoid these rocks in a Zollverein to be
reconstituted by Prussia, after 1865, for the exercise of
corporation electoral rights, I think we shall have to adopt
one feature of the Union project of 1849, and erect a sort
of Customs Parliament, with conditions for _itio in partes_,
if the others demand it. The Governments will object gravely
to such a course; but if we are daring and consequent we
could effect much. The idea expressed in your letter, to make
the Prussian Chambers a means, by their representation of
all German taxpayers, to found a hegemony, is from the same
point of view. The most powerful aids of our foreign policy
might consist in the Chambers and the Press. In the present
state of things, which may be confirmed by the vote, the
Zollverein policy, the evil of the Verein for Prussia, would
render the necessity for the termination a matter for the most
circumstantial and closest debate, that a recognition of it
should take place; your letter ought to appear as an article
in the _Kreuzzeitung_, instead of lying upon my table here.
The German Custom policy should be broadly and unreservedly
discussed from the Prussian stand-point by the Chambers and the
Press—then the flagging attention of Germany would be drawn
to it, and our Chambers would become a power for Prussia in
Germany. I should like to see the Zollverein and the Bund,
with Prussia’s relations to both, subjected to the scalpel
of the acutest criticism in our Chambers. This would only be
an advantage to the King, his Ministers, and their policy,
presuming them to know their business. At the same time, I
could wish, as the result of such a discussion, that the
proposition should be _adopted_ by a small majority. For the
Zollverein desires at the present moment rather to fetter the
German governments to their flesh-pots, than for them to win
the sympathies of their subjects. The latter are powerless, as,
so far as they are concerned, a powerful, business-like, and
honorable debate would do the same as the chance of the results
of a vote.

* * * * *

Frankfurt, 12th Nov., 1858.

Your letter was an unexpected pleasure: the address looked just
like one of Johanna’s, and I wondered how she could have got to
the Uckermark. I have not been able to answer before: business,
a cold, hunting, has partly taken up all my time, nor did I
quite know what to write to you about the new phenomenon in the
political heaven, that I could not have written as well about
the comet—an interesting phenomenon wholly unexpected by me,
the object and nature of which is yet unknown to me. The orbit
of the comet our astronomers are pretty well able to calculate,
but it would be difficult for them to do the same by this new
political septasterism. Johanna reached here safely with the
children this morning; God be praised, they are well, but not
in good spirits. She is upset by all the political terrors
they have filled her with in Pomerania and Berlin, and I try
in vain to render her more light-hearted. The natural distress
of the lady of a house also influences her, when it becomes
doubtful whether one remains in a new house set up with care
and expense. She came hither with the idea that I was about to
take my leave. I do not know whether my resignation will be
forced on me without my own will, or whether I must seek it for
decency’s sake. Before I do it voluntarily, I shall wait to see
what the ministerial colors are.

If the Upper Chamber retain their feelings for the conservative
party, and sincerely strive for a good understanding and peace
_at home_, they may rely upon a healthy state in our _foreign_
affairs, and that is of great importance to me, for “we had
fallen, and did not know how.” That is what I especially felt.
I think that the Prince has been especially placed at the head
to secure a guarantee against party government, and against
any concessions to the Left. If I am mistaken in this, or if
they wish to dispose of me as an office-seeker, I shall retire
behind the cannon of Schönhausen, and observe how Prussia can
be governed by majorities of the Left, and also endeavor to
do my duty to the Upper Chamber. Change is the soul of life,
and I shall feel myself ten years younger if I find myself in
the same attitude as in 1848-’9. Should I not find the parts
of gentleman and diplomatist consistent, the pleasure or the
burden of fulfilling a prominent position will not cause me
to err for a moment in my choice. I have enough to live upon
according to my wants, and if God keeps my wife and children
healthy, as they have been, I say, “_vogue la galère_,” no
matter what water we swim in. It will be very unimportant to
_me_, after thirty years, whether I play the diplomatist or the
country Junker; and hitherto the prospect of an honest contest,
without being confined by any official trammels—particularly
in political swimming-baths—has almost as much charm for me
as the prospect of a _régime_ of truffles, dispatches, and
grand crosses. “After nine, all is over,” says the player. I
can not tell you more than these personal opinions—the enigma
stands before me unsolved. I have one great satisfaction here
at the Diet. All those gentlemen who six months ago demanded
my recall as a necessity for German unity, now tremble at the
thought of losing me. To —— the phantom of 1848 is a terror;
and they are all like pigeons who see the hawk—afraid of
democracy, barricades, Parliament, and ... —— sinks into my
arms touchingly, and says, with a cramped shake of the hand,
“We are again forced into _one_ field.” The French naturally,
but the English also, look upon us as firebrands, and the
Russians fear that the Emperor will be led astray by our plans
of reform. I say to every one naturally, “Only be calm, and all
will come right;” and they answer, “Yes, if you were going to
stay, then we should have a guarantee, but ...” If he doesn’t
feel Frankfurt singing in his ears, he has no ear-drums. In a
week he has been degraded from a worthy liberal conservative
in the imaginations of his eventual colleagues, to a scarlet
tiger—helper’s helper of Kinkel and D’Ester. The Bamberg
diplomatist talks of a continental assurance against Prussian
firebrandism, growls of a tri-Imperial alliance against us—a
new Olmütz with effectual operations. In short, the political
world is getting less tiresome. My children cry, “Pietsch
comes!” in the joy at my having a servant of that name at
Schönhausen; and it would seem that the arrival of this Pietsch
and the comet are not without significance. Heartily farewell,
my very dear one, and greet Oscar. He must not hang down his
head—it’s all gammon.

* * * * *

Frankfurt, 10th Dec., 1858.

You had rightly guessed in your letter to Johanna, that
your kindness would be asked for a Christmas commission. I
should like to give Johanna a bracelet. The kind of thing
flitting before me is broad, smooth, mailed, bending, made of
chessboard-patterned little four-cornered gold pieces—_without_
jewels—pure gold, as far as two hundred _thalers_ will go.
If you find something that pleases you better, I have every
confidence in your taste. The exact thing in the fashion is
not, _therefore_, pleasing to me—such things last longer
than the fashion. Be so good, and have it directed to “Privy
Councillor ——, Prussian Embassy,” with an inclosed letter for
_me_, or the old gentleman may think it a delicate attention
for _himself_.

Johanna will have written you as to the child complaints we
have had, and how I have suffered from colds and coughs. I
do not know whether much or little sleep, diet or excess,
housekeeping or hunting, improves or hurts, but I turn from
one to the other, from ideas of health. As to my transfer or
recall, all is still again; for a time, Petersburg seemed very
certain, and I had grown so accustomed to the idea, that I
felt quite disappointed when the rumor went forth that I was
to remain here. There will be some bad political weather here,
which I should be very glad to weather out in bear-furs, with
caviar and elk-shooting. Our new Cabinet is still looked upon
abroad with suspicion; Austria alone, with cunning calculation,
gives it a meed of praise; while ——, behind his hand, warns
us; and so do his colleagues, at all the courts. The cat won’t
let the mice alone. But, in the end, the ministers must show a
policy; merely cursing the Kreuzzeitung will not last forever.
I shall hardly come to Berlin in the winter; it would be very
agreeable if you would visit us here before I am “put out in
the cold” on the Neva.

* * * * *

St. Petersburg, 12th May, 1859.

I have become convinced, by the experience of the eight years
of my official life in Frankfurt, that the settlement by the
Diet, made in those days, forms a pressing, and, in critical
times, a vitally dangerous fetter for Prussia, without giving,
in return, such equivalents, enjoyed by Austria, under an
unequally large mass of free self-action. The two greater
Powers do not attain an equal measurement from the Princes
and Governments of the smaller States; the construction of
the object and the law of the Diet is modified according to
the requirements of Austrian policy. I need not, considering
your knowledge, enter upon more circumstantial arguments
respecting the history of the policy of the Diet since 1850,
and hence confine myself by naming the paragraphs concerning
the restoration of the Diet, the question of the German Navy,
Customs disputes, the laws respecting commerce, the press, and
the Constitution, the Diet fortresses of Rastatt and Mainz, and
the questions of Neuenburg and the East. _We have always found
ourselves face to face with the same compact majority, with
the same demand for concessions from Prussia._ In the Eastern
question, the power of Austria has ever proved so superior to
ours, that even the identity of the wishes and aspirations
of the Diet governments, with the efforts of Prussia, have
presented for her an ever-receding obstacle. With scarcely
any exception, our associates in the Diet have given us to
understand, or have even openly declared, that they were
unable to maintain the Diet with us, should Austria pursue her
own course; although it is unquestionable that federal law
and real German interests were side by side with our peace
policy; this, at least, was then the opinion of almost all
the Princes. Would the latter have ever brought their own
interests and wishes as a sacrifice to the wants, or even
the safety, of Prussia? Certainly not: for their attachment
to Austria is founded on outbalancing false interests, which
prescribe to both a coalition against Prussia, a repression of
all further development of the influence and power of Prussia,
as a foundation for their common policy. A development of
federal relations, under Austrian leadership, is the natural
end of the policy of the German Princes and their Ministers;
according to their opinions, this can only be accomplished at
the expense of Prussia, and is necessarily directed against
Prussia, so long as Prussia will not confine herself to the
useful problem of providing for her equally entitled associates
in the Diet an assurance against the preponderance of Austria,
and is willing to bear the disproportion of her duties towards
her rights in the Diet, being resigned to the wishes of the
majority with untiring complacency. This tendency of the policy
of the Central States will reappear with the constancy of
the magnetic needle after every evanescent variation, because
it represents no arbitrary product of individual events or
persons, but is, in fact, a natural and necessary result of
federal relations for the smaller States. There are no existing
means by which we can maintain the actual federal treaties in
an intimate manner.

Since our associates in the Diet, some years ago, began,
under the guidance of Austria, to bring to light, from the
hitherto neglected arsenal of the constitution of the Diet, the
principles that would give prominence to their system—since
it has been endeavored, in a partial way, to stifle the
policy of Prussia by propositions which could only possess
one signification in the sense of their proposers, in so far
as they apply to the unanimity of Prussia and Austria—we have
been obliged to endure the stress of the situation that the
Diet and its whole historical development has forced upon us.
We could say to ourselves, that in peaceful and orderly times
we could weaken the evil in its results by skillful treatment,
but we should be powerless to effect a cure; it is only too
natural that in dangerous times, such as the present, the
other side, in possession of all the advantages of the Diet
settlement, should willingly confess that much has taken place
of an improper nature, but should at the same time declare, in
the “general interests,” that the present juncture is highly
inapplicable for the discussion of past matters and “internal”
disputes. But such an opportunity, if we do not make use of it
at once, may not so speedily recur; and in the future we shall
be forced to our normal resignation, which allows of no changes
in the condition of things in orderly times.

His Royal Highness the Prince Regent has taken up a position
commanding the unqualified approval of all those who are
entitled to form any judgment of Prussian politics, and who
thence have not allowed themselves to be disturbed by party
feeling. Some of our associates in the Diet seek to blind us,
by thoughtless and fanatical efforts, as to this attitude. If
the statesmen of Bamberg are so frivolously ready to follow
the first war outcry of an uncritical and mutable public
opinion, if it does not take place probably quite without a
comforting after-thought of the easiness with which a small
state can change its colors in case of need; but if, in order
to send a power like Prussia under fire, they desire to make
use of the treaties of the Diet; if it be supposed that we
shall substitute property and blood for political wisdom, and
the thirst for action on the part of governments, to whom our
defense is absolutely necessary for their existence; if these
States think they are to dictate the guiding impulse, and
regard _theories concerning the rights of the Diet_ as means to
such an end, then _with such recognition all Prussian political
autonomy would be over_; then, in my opinion, it would be time
for us to remember that the guides, who imagine we should
follow them, serve other interests than those of Prussia, and
that they understand the interests of Germany they talk so much
about as non-identical with the interests of Prussia, if we
decline to accede to their desires.

Perhaps I am going too far when I express it as my opinion,
that we should seize every justifiable opportunity, presented
by our associates in the Diet, to arrive at the revision
of our mutual relations, necessary to Prussia, by which
she can exist in defined relations to the smaller German
States. I think we should willingly take up the gauntlet,
and regard it as no misfortune, but as real progress, a
crisis leading to improvement, if a majority at Frankfurt
should decide upon such a vote, which we could look upon as
a transgression of competency, an arbitrary change in the
object of the confederation, a violation of its treaties. _The
more unmistakable this violation the better._ We shall not
easily find conditions of such a favorable nature in Austria,
France, and Russia, by which we can alter our own position
towards Germany for the better. Our allies are on the high
road towards giving us perfectly justifiable motives for such
a course, without our stimulating their insolence. Even the
_Kreuzzeitung_, as I see by the number of last Sunday, is
becoming somewhat startled at the thought that a Frankfurt
majority could immediately dispose of the Prussian army. _Not
in this newspaper alone_ have I hitherto perceived with sorrow
how Austria has established an autocracy over the German press
by the skillfully laid net of her influence, and how well
she knows to use the weapon. Without this, so-called public
opinion could scarcely have risen to this height; I designate
it so-called, for the real mass of the population is never
inclined for war, unless the demonstrable suffering of real
oppression has aroused it. To such a pitch has it risen, that
even under the cloak of general German opinion, any Prussian
newspaper can hardly declare itself in favor of Prussian
patriotism. General Twiddle-twaddle plays a great part in this,
nor must we omit the Zwanzigers (cash) that never fail Austria
for this aim. Most newspaper correspondents write for their
bread and cheese, most newspapers look to their incomes, and
an experienced reader may easily see, by our newspapers and
others, whether they have received, or speedily anticipate, or
wish by threatening pantomime to force, a subsidy from Austria.

I think we should produce an admirable revulsion in public
opinion if we were to sound the chords of independent Prussian
policy in the press, in opposition to the exaggerations of our
German allies. Perhaps things may happen at Frankfurt which may
give us full reason to do so.